BLAB Comics Anthology Gets Midwestern

Image: Don Colley, My Burdened Heart, 16"wide x 12" deep, scratchboard drawing on laminated plastic, Originally published in BLAB! 15 (c)2009

Monte Beauchamp's annual darling of the graphic design and illustration world is a spectacular collection of cutting-edge comics, illustration, and graphic design. Blab!'s list of contributors past and present reads like a Who's Who of the contemporary visual art world including Mark Ryden, Chris Ware, Gary Panter, Joe Coleman and many more.

This exhibition will focus on the work of 4 artists from the Midwest who have been featured in the pages of BLAB! Edited by Monte Beauchamp BLAB! is an annual anthology that collects the freshest and most unique in cutting-edge comics, illustration, and graphic design. Its contributors come together from all corners of the contemporary art world to push the boundaries of visual culture. This exhibition will showcase the work of Don Colley, Tom Huck, Teresa James, and Fred Stonehouse who share more than simple geography. Their work taps into a dark narrative, that is both savage and beautiful, to present a magical vision of a gothic Midwest. This exhibition is co-curated by Monte Beauchamp and Anchor Graphics @ Columbia College Chicago. It will be on display in the Averill and Bernard Leviton A+D Gallery, 619 S. Wabash Ave. in Chicago.

“Though BLAB!’s scope is international,” writes Bill North, Senior Curator of the Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art at Kansas State University, in the exhibition’s catalog essay. “The underpinning of its cornucopian visual feast is resolutely Midwestern. BLAB!, a product of the Midwest, boldly affirms the positive view of Midwestern culture. And, in the face of BLAB!, claims of the region’s cultural inferiority ring hollow.”

Image: Fred Stonehouse, Four Eyes, 12"x12", acrylic and collage on wood panel, To be published in BLAB! 19 (c)2009

EXHIBITING ARTISTS: Don Colley, Tom Huck, Teresa James, CJ Pyle, and Fred Stonehouse

WHEN: June 18 – July 22, 2009

Opening Reception: Thursday, June 18, from 5-8pm

Fred Stonehouse Lecture: Wednesday, June 17, 6:30 - 7:30 pm

WHERE: Columbia College Chicago’s Leviton A+D Gallery

619 S. Wabash Avenue

Gallery hours: Tuesday – Saturday 11am – 5pm, Thursday 11 am – 8 pm

COST: Free and Open to the Public

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INFO: Gallery Coordinator, 312.369.8686

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